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Good morning friends, today is Wednesday July 17 and we’re reading together Exodus 18.
When you consider the spiritual heritage of your family, what role would you say your parents and grandparents had in your personal spiritual development? What about the values of your family? What spiritual influence have they had on your children and grandchildren?
For my wife Dawn and me, we hold in very high esteem, the spiritual heritage which was handed down to us from our parents and grandparents. In a variety of ways, the spiritual influence of my missionary parents, and immigrant, Godly grandparents, have been particularly significant in our lives and how we raised our daughter April. And now she has married a son of missionaries, and they are now raising their four daughters, our grand-girls, in Senegal, West Africa.
What a different America we would be living in, if the vast majority of Americans could thank God for a Godly family heritage! Well my friends, regardless of the family heritage you have, would you agree we ALL have the privilege of BUILDING a Godly heritage! A regardless of how well or poorly we’ve done that in our past, today and tomorrow are new days, not yet lived. We can each begin a new, God honoring, family heritage TODAY! It’s never too late my friends. . .
In Exodus 18, we once again encounter Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, whom we first met in Exodus 2. Moses was fleeing Egypt as a Prince of Egypt who had killed a man in Egypt, and then he met one of Jethro’s daughters who was tending a flock of sheep. She brought Moses home to meet her Daddy, and he gave Moses both a place to live and a job, teaching him the shepherd business. Later, Moses married that daughter of Jethro and God blessed them with two sons whom we meet here in Exodus 18.
Evidently somewhere along the story of the Exodus, Moses had sent his wife Zipporah and their sons home to Daddy Jethro, while Moses was fully engaged in the process of confronting Pharaoh and leading the people out of Egypt, into the desert as refugees.
In this chapter, the moving tidal wave of refugees had evidently followed the cloud to a place not too far from Jethro’s home, so Jethro brings his daughter and grandsons back to Moses. Their ‘reunion” is quite amazing…
“Moses told his father-in-law about everything the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the LORD had saved them. Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the LORD had done for Israel… He said ‘Praise be to the LORD, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from Pharaoh…Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods…” (18:7-12)
And then I see in vs. 12 that Moses, Jethro, Aaron and the elders of Israel had a powerful worship time together, in the Presence of God. You’ll recall when we first meet Jethro in Exodus 2&3, he is referred to as “the priest of Midian”, and here it seems clear he is a worshiper of Almighty God, and declares his conviction that Moses’ story of the Exodus thus far, is affirmation of the uniqueness of Almighty, Holy God, the Supreme God above all supposed gods of the nations.
The remainder of Exodus 18 is one of the greatest examples of parental coaching of all time. Isn’t that our parental priority my friends? Psalm 78:1-8 and so many other verses in Scripture show us that as parents we are to be teachers, mentors, coaches. We are to instruct our children in truth and in God’s ways. We are to coach their spiritual and moral development. We are to mentor them in the wisdom we have gained in our life journey, especially in wisdom we’ve received from our Godly parents & grandparents, and proven to be true in our lifetime.
So Jethro watches Moses as he serves as the arbitrator between people who have disputes, as we see in vs. 13-16. While Jethro was impressed with Moses’ work ethic and his integrity in doing well what he did…Jethro was concerned, that the sheer scope of the job was too much for one man. There had to be a better way.
While I don’t see it in Scripture, I suspect as Jethro watched, he was praying, asking God to give him wisdom to help Moses…and sure enough, he finally sat down with Moses and wisely said “What you are doing is NOT good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you, you cannot handle this alone. Listen now, and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.” (18:17-19)
Honestly now think back in your life… think of the teachers and coaches and mentors you’ve had, including your parents and grandparents. Who among them has ever spoken to you like this? How did you respond? What difference did it make in your life?
Would you agree that one of the important aspects of successful living is having a teachable spirit? Knowing that you don’t know everything…that there are other people who know more about everything that in anyway touches your life, than you do. It means there are people who know more about the car you drive, than you do. People who know more about the appliances in your house, including your heating & air conditioning, than you do. People who know more about how to manage your finances and investments than you do. People who know more about how to manage your health than you do etc. So how do you feel about that? Honestly now… do we welcome wisdom and advice from others or do we resist it, perhaps even resent and reject it? Would you agree that pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency, contributes to making major mistakes in life that can do great harm to ourselves and our families?
Notice two things about the Jethro-Moses talk here in Exodus 18. Do you see Jethro gave really good, thoughtful, and well defined advice and included God in his advice? Jethro didn’t simply point out the problems, he made really wise recommendations. He laid out a strategic action plan to help Moses move from his over-work, and his approaching burn-out, to delegation and leadership development, which would allow him to focus his attention on that which would maximize his effectiveness in the leadership role God had entrusted to him. Did you get that?
Look carefully at what Jethro told Moses to do…analyze it and see how it was a step by step leadership development plan.
Now also look at how Moses received this radical advice from his father-in-law. “Moses listened to his father-in-law, and did everything he said…” (18:24) Moses listened carefully. Moses had a teachable spirit. I believe he prayed earnestly over all he heard, seeking to know from God if it was wise counsel he should follow. He then took action...and did all that Jethro had advised him. He selected other leaders and trained them so he could delegate and entrust them with important leadership sharing roles. He developed a triage system, which evidently worked well, as only the difficult cases were brought to Moses.
Exodus 18 my friends is a major turning point in the story of the Exodus and the people of God, Israel. From here on, we see Moses focusing most of his time on discerning God’s guidance for the people, and leading the people in becoming the people of God, according to God’s values and guidelines for living. We also see Moses spending much more of his time with God getting to know GOD so He could represent God to the people. Do you see how important this change in his leadership role was in Exodus 18?
Now let’s integrate that into our lives. Would you agree, we adults need to stay ahead of our kids and grand-kids, in our spiritual development, our wisdom and our understanding of God? If we don’t, we may find ourselves irrelevant, unable to lead them, and that my friends is a disaster of parenting and leadership!
This is one of the reasons I’m doing this “Walking With Jesus”…to keep challenging you to growth and development and spiritual maturity. Because all around you are people depending on you to be ahead of them in life’s wisdom, so they can learn from you! May I give you a suggestion… try reading 1 chapter of the book of Proverbs, in the Bible, per week. Every verse is a nugget of wisdom for life and building God honoring character.
Do you see the last verse of Exodus 18? “Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.” Now don’t misunderstand that. Moses did NOT resent and reject his father-in-law, and tell him to get out of town and leave him alone. On the contrary, it was with great appreciation that Moses released Jethro to return to his home, his extended family, his flocks and herds. He had accomplished his job as a mentor father-in-law. He had given Moses the encouragement and wisdom needed. He had other family to coach, and so he bid Moses and his daughter and grandsons farewell, and returned home to continuing mentoring, coaching, and teaching, the rest of his family.
I’m guessing Jethro was about 100 years old and it was time for him to think about what it would mean to ‘finish well’ in life. Have you given that much thought friends? What will it take for you to arrive at the very end of your life, to be ready to die with contentment? Leaving no loose ends, no unfinished business, and pleased with the legacy you are leaving all those who know you? Especially your spiritual legacy? What would you hope people will say about you as they gather for your memorial service? Don’t leave it to chance… build that legacy with every remaining day you have!
As we close today…may I urge you to think back. Who have been your Jethro’s? What did they teach you? How have you handled the wisdom they offered you? How have you thanked them?
And to whom are you a Jethro? How are you challenging yourself to continued growth and development in spiritual wisdom so you can stay ahead of those who need you to keep coaching them? How are you developing the skills of passing along the wisdom God is entrusting to you, so those you could help, will value what they can learn from you?
May I urge all of us, men and women on the journey with me in these 150 days, to really prioritize being a God honoring, God led Jethro… I urge you to spend some time today praying about this, and giving serious consideration to your self-development process, and your commitment to your spiritual growth, and your effectiveness in passing along to others, what God is teaching you. Read a few verses in Proverbs. It may make all the difference in the world, in your family or the life of someone who needs you to be their Jethro.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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